The general use of sinker devices in fishing with hook and line has been practiced for many years, and it has become increasingly common to employ specialized sinker designs in certain specific fishing situations. One such situation is the use of plastic or natural worms as bait with a fishing technique known as jigging, in which a sinker device is placed in proximity to the baited hook and used to sink the baited hook to the bottom of the body of water being fished. In this fishing technique it is desirable to maintain a particular orientation between sinker and hook, and combined sinker and hook devices sometimes referred to as jig heads have been employed to positively maintain that orientation. Although jig heads, exemplified by designs offered for sale through the 1986 "Bass Pro Shops" catalogue, and other sinker designs which firmly attach the sinker to the fishing hook or to the fishing line in immediate proximity to the hook, are effective in maintaining the desired orientation of the hook and bait above the bottom of the body of water, they suffer from several disadvantages. One such disadvantage is the fact that the sinker or sinker portion of the jig head will often wedge open the mouth of a fish which has taken the baited hook, allowing the hook to slide from the mouth of the fish when the fisherman attempts to set it. Another disadvantage is the inability to release the relatively heavy sinker from the hook after setting of the hook in the mouth of the fish, with the result that the sinker portion adds momentum and leverage to the efforts of the fish to throw or dislodge the hook from its mouth.
One approach to the solution of these disadvantages which has been attempted is to provide a sinker which slides freely along the fishing line, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,749 to Boyum and by U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,663 to Strickland. While these designs have been effective in eliminating the hook throwing leverage of a fixed sinker, their effectiveness in preventing the wedging open of the mouth of the fish is much less evident. In addition, neither design is particularly useful in positioning the hook within the mouth of the fish to aid in the setting of the hook by the fisherman.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sinker device which not only overcomes the disadvantages of wedging and hook throwing leverage, but also to provide a sinker design which aids in properly positioning the hook within the mouth of the fish for successfully setting such hook.